The Oblong Box (1969)

Believing him to be guilty of accidentally killing a local boy, natives at an African plantation grab Sir Edward Markham (Alister Williamson), nail him to a wooden cross, and use witchcraft to leave him hideously scarred and struggling with his sanity.Back in England, and locked in a room by his brother Julian (Vincent Price), Sir Edward devises a desperate plan to escape and reverse his disfigurement: he swallows a special tablet that makes it seem as though he is dead. Once interred, he is to be secretly dug up and taken to a witch doctor who will hopefully cure his malady.Unfortunately, things don't go as well as planned, and Sir Edward is left buried alive—at least until a body-snatcher unearths him and takes him to the home of surgeon Dr. Newhartt (Christopher Lee). Coming out of his self-induced death state as the doctor prises open his coffin, Sir Edward blackmails Newhartt into keeping his existence a secret while he seeks revenge on those who left him for dead.Other than the title, The Oblong Box has very little in common with Edgar Allen Poe's short story, but it matters not: the first film to star both Price and Lee, this ghoulish tale of vengeance benefits from a compelling screenplay, stylish direction, and great performances, not just from its leading duo of horror icons (who sadly share little screen-time together), but also from a fine supporting cast, including the lovely Hilary Heath as Sir Julian's wife Elizabeth, and extremely cute Carry On star Sally Geeson as maid Sally.Also adding to the fun are some mean-spirited murders (albeit wholly unconvincing, with bright red paint for blood), some fleeting nudity, a midget whore, and a rousing bar-room brawl. Very much in the tradition of Hammer's later horror movies, this Poe-in-name-only offering from American International is well worth the effort.7.5/10 rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

The script writers here took the long way around in trying to tell a coherent story and weren't altogether successful. There are a whole bunch of interesting elements offered that would have been more compelling if things were thought through a bit better. For one, the fellow Hackett (Maxwell Shaw), who was made immobile by voodoo practitioner N'Galo (Harry Baird) to impersonate the presumed dead Edward Markham (Alistair Williamson), didn't really have to be thrown to his death in a river for the scheme to work. If the folks of the local village where the story took place weren't aware of what Sir Edward looked like after all these years, they probably would have overlooked Hackett popping up again in due course.Just for the heck of it, re-read the last couple of sentences. Does it sound like it makes any kind of sense at all? That's what the movie seemed like to me.Having some of the earmarks of a Hammer Film production, this one was actually put out by American International Pictures (AIP) during the same era. It's kind of interesting to read some of the other comments on this board that believe it to be a Hammer flick. That probably has to do with the portrayals of Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, neither of which is particularly scary this time around, and the occasional splatter of bright red blood, courtesy of Sir Edward's murder victims.The best thing this story did for me was as a reminder of a host of expressions that arose from the idea of people mistakenly buried alive. You may have heard it, originating from centuries past England at a time when it was thought that they were running out of room to bury people. The idea was to drill a hole in the lid of a coffin so a string could be tied to a dead person's hand, up and into a tube that emitted from the enclosure above ground. If a buried person 'woke up', their movement would conveniently signal a watchman posted in a cemetery for just that reason. Thus arose the phrases 'working the graveyard shift', saved by the bell' and a 'real dead ringer'. All those expressions have different origins, but they sound good enough to fool just about anyone. Try it on your friends.

The Oblong Box is one of Poe's milder effusions into horror; and this film, prepared with Michael Reeves in mind for Director, owes at least something in approach to his Witchfinder General. It owes virtually nothing to Poe other than the title. It's often surprisingly nasty by the standards of the time, but Gordon Hessler, who replaced Reeves after his untimely death, does a good job of making the film into a reasonably compelling narrative, even if he is a little too fond of extreme close-ups.The film is also marvellously photographed, and in this respect at least it harks back to Roger Corman's Poe films. Vincent Price gives an impressively restrained performance (probably influenced by the favourable reviews he received for a similar turn in Witchfinder) although his romance with Hilary Dwyer's character is a little improbable, given his age.What's more remarkable of course is the totty his mad brother manages to pull! A big nose and a bad case of acne is hardly a reason to turn into a deranged mask-wearing killer. Yet it doesn't seem to put off the females much (including Sally Geeson, no less). To quote Groucho Marx in A Night at The Opera of a sleeping Harpo: "He does better asleep than I do awake!"Christopher Lee lends sterling support to proceedings as a Doctor not above hiring body snatchers for his researches. As the film is set in the mid-Victorian era, this plot point seems rather anomalously late, as Doctors were able to procure bodies perfectly legally by then! Overall this is a pretty decent movie. It's not well thought of by most critics, though, so you may not like it as much as I did.

The opening premise of THE OBLONG BOX is almost identical to the Peter Davison DOCTOR WHO story, "Black Orchid". A man returns from Africa, cursed by tribal magic, disfigured & insane, and kept a prisoner in his own home by his family. But whereas on the WHO story that was the punch line, here's it's just the springboard. Said victim secretly pays some friends to help him escape his brother-- Vincent Price-- who comes across as much nicer than most of these films, but all the same seems to be hiding something. Via more witch doctor "magic", the man fakes his own death... but then things go astray. SERIOUSLY astray. He's buried alive, then his "body" is stolen by grave-robbers in the employ of an unscrupulous medical adventurer. (One expects Peter Cushing in such a role, but NO! --it's Christopher Lee!) WHY his "friends" failed to follow-thru on their plan is a complete mystery to me-- I blame an unpolished script. It would have been a much more entertaining (and sensible) twist if they'd actually TRIED digging him up only to find the grave-robbers got there FIRST...! But no. The result: in addition to wanting to find out WHY he had a jungle curse put on him, Price's brother now wants REVENGE on everyone involved. Armed with a mask and a VERY sharp knife, his antics in the film's 2nd half make this seem like a Victorian-era installment of the HALLOWEEN series!!! I understand the late Michael Reeves was scheduled to direct; this may explain why Price, Rupert Davies (DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE) and Hilary Dwyer (CRY OF THE BANSHEE) are all together again following WITCHFINDER GENERAL-- and why there's so much pointless VIOLENCE in the story. While that film disturbed me in the EXTREME each time I sat thru it, OBLONG BOX is a LOT more "fun"-- if you can get past the growing number of bodies, most of which were killed in particularly brutal and senseless fashion. 2 interesting things I noticed about this plot, as it goes on nearly every character seems to be BLACKMAILING somebody (it seems EVERYBODY has some secret they don't want known), and the sympathetic-yet-INSANE victim/SLASHER only seems to kill people who've done wrong. (The sweet, innocent housekeeper gets terrified and dragged thru the woods, but nothing REALLY happens to her!) Interesting cameos to watch for: Colin Jeavons (Inspector Lestrade on the Jeremy Brett HOLMES series) plays a police inspector, as does Ivor Dean (Inspector Teal on the Roger Moore SAINT series!).With this film, producer Louis M. Heyward & director Gordon Hessler began a string of collaborations, all of which were somewhat iffy. Like WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP (which Heyward produced) OBLONG BOX feels like the script could have used to fine-tuning. (WHY did Price do what he did before the picture started? HOW was it nobody at his brother's viewing realized the body on display was SOMEBODY ELSE? etc.) All the same, I find it more watchable than most of these.